House of Cards
by The Dealers
Summary: This story has gone so far out to canon that we cannot see canon anymore, even with our omnioculars. Basically it's What If the downfall of us was 'what if...' Voldemort went after the Longbottoms instead and took over? AU


HOUSE OF CARDS

A/N: PLEASE READ! This fic was begun after a very odd conversation at my house and it wasn't until we came to write it up that we realised just how far away from JKRs original canon plotline we had come. We can still see canon (if we squint) but…Anyway, all you, dear reader really need to know it what is written out underneath in quick notes.

a) This story focuses on what would have happened if Voldemort had killed the Longbottoms on Halloween night in 1982 instead of the Potters.

b) Vinny is Remus's daughter, Sephy is Sirius's and Rosie is James's.

c) At the point where this begins Voldemort is winning by sheer weight of numbers (even non-Deatheaters 'officially' support him). The situation has become so bad that even muggles are aware that something is wrong. This means that Hogwarts is closed.

d) The Order all live together in a magically hidden gated community.

If there is anything you are still unclear about after chapter 5 or 6 please let us know in a review but we will try and update you as we go along. Also, there are some chapters which are flashbacks to the marauders at Hogwarts and the Order before Sephy, Vinny and Rosie.

As always, reviews are welcome, nay encouraged, and we hope you enjoy the warped landscape that is our imaginations.

Disclaimer: Any characters or settings you don't recognise belong to us the rest belong to the creator of the Harry Potter universe. Any song lyrics used will be credited as required. Wilmington Grange doesn't belong to us either; we just went to school there.

Rated for violence, trauma and language in later chapters.

House of Cards

Chapter I: Aces in the Pack

"Are you coming over for dinner tonight?" asked Rosie, leaning back against the weathered planks of the old shed, tipping her head to one side to avoid being in the slipstream of her friends' cigarettes.

Sephy laughed and flicked her hair out of her eyes, leaning back against the sun soaked stone. She blew a smoke ring at Rosie's nose.

Vinny, the tallest of the three, was sitting on a wooden barstool looking down at them, laughing. "Well it's either that or cold pizza again. Uhm…" she raised her eyebrows sarcastically, "Uhm…cardboard and cheese or Lily's cooking…I think I'll take the cardboard."

Rosie looked up at her, squinting in the bright sunlight, "Merlin knows what she'll feed us. There's nothing in the larder. Dad's platoon of aurors descended on us on Tuesday. They ate all the good food. All we've got is mustard."

"Well," put in Sephy, lying on her back to blow smoke at the bright azure sky, but she broke off sharply. "Shit, Vinny, your dad's coming."

Vinny thrust her cigarette at Rosie, who fumbled, almost dropped it and singed the ends of her hair. "Vinny pivoted on the barstool, almost sliding off the shiny wood, panic fleeting across her face as she exclaimed in an overly chirpy voice, "Hi Dad!"

Remus turned at the sound of her voice, surprise wrinkling his prematurely lined brow as he turned to face them. "Hello girls, I didn't realise that you were out here." Vinny narrowed her eyes at Sephy who shrugged and took another drag whilst Remus continued, "Weren't you supposed to be helping in the kitchens today Lavinia?" And without waiting for an answer he turned to Rosie, sitting grinning suspiciously at her smouldering cigarette, having swept her singed hair over her shoulder. "I didn't know you'd started smoking Rosie."

Sephy felt the urge at that moment to have a bout of coughing, in which she concealed the words 'inhale it'.

Rosie raised the cigarette tentatively to her lips and hesitantly drew in. She felt the acrid smoke hit the back of her throat and dissipate through her nose, stinging unpleasantly.

Remus' eyebrows shot into his hair.

Sephy smirked.

Rosie coughed once daintily though her eyes were streaming through her layers of brand new mascara. "I think I've had enough. You can finish it Sephy." She pushed the now bedraggled cancer stick at Sephy who looked at the two in her grip bemusedly then shrugged and began smoking both in a gesture who reminded Remus inexorably of Sirius.

"Anyway girls, I was just going across to the Order meeting. We're in the dining room so you won't be able to get through. Vinny, remember our discussions about peer pressure," he said, looking pointedly at Rosie.

"Yes dad," all three of the girls chorused. They waited until he had entered the main building of Order headquarters through the ajar kitchen door before breaking out in a tirade of hissed complaints."

"-it's so annoying-"

"-not again-"

"-there's never any food anywhere else-"

"-not with rationing-"

"-and they all know it-"

"-I mean, for Merlin's sake-"

"-can't they go somewhere else?-"

"-it's not as though your place isn't big enough Sephy-"

"-and you know what this means," put in Vinny glumly.

"Yep."

"They'll eat everything. They always do. They're like locusts."

"I can almost see the biscuits walking out of my reach," added Vinny, a far away look in her eyes as though she could indeed see a brigade of biscuits marching over a hill and into a setting sun.

"Sephy's appearance darkened, black spreading from her scalp, through her blond hair like paint dripping down a wall. Her eyes flashed as they turned from blue to black and she ground her cigarettes out in the crack between the stones. "It really pisses me off," she muttered, her hair becoming shorter, more tousled.

"It's really creepy when you look that much like your father, Sephy," said Vinny, staring in fascination as Sephy's lips grew fuller, blushing a deep blood red to emphasise the churlish pout curling the corners of her mouth.

"I wish I was a metamorphagus," said Rosie absently; she had seen this trick before.

"Don't compare me with him," snapped Sephy, glancing up at Vinny. "He's such a disgusting hypocrite. He won't let me see his books. You know the ones in his chest?" The other two nodded their agreement. "Well he won't let me. After all his speeches about how incredibly important and vital it is for us to understand how the Dark Lo- Voldemort's side operates. It's not fair." Her voice had taken on the petulant whine of a thwarted child impatient to have her way.

Vinny and Rosie swapped the most fleeting of glances and then Rosie turned and suggested, "Do you want to go into town to eat?"

"I think I've got some chores to do." This time it was Sephy and Rosie who exchanged a look, Sephy arching one eyebrow. They both knew that these fictitious chores were not due to a demand of labour but to gold flowing far less freely in the Lupin family. "Besides," continued Vinny, "I have to cook for dad this evening."

"Come on," urged Rosie, "We'll pick Remus up something while we're out."

"No, it's cool, really. Don't worry."

Sephy looked up at her with an expression that in different circumstances could have been classed as exasperation. "For fuck's sake Vinny. Stop being such an attention seeker. We'll go up to the Headless Hippogriff and I'll get you a butterbeer," she added patronisingly.

Vinny communicated with her fingers, clearly belying how she felt about that particular suggestion. "Make mine a double firewhisky."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it. Please R+R


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